Ministry of Electronics & IT
CDAC and Arm partner to enable semiconductor startups in India through Arm Flexible Access for Startups Program
Collaboration will support promising semiconductor design startups as part of the Government and industry’s ongoing efforts to encourage innovation in semiconductor design space
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing  announced a collaboration with Arm, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company, today in Gandhinagar, to broaden the support under the Design Linked Incentive Scheme  and further enable the semiconductor market growth in India. As part of this announcement, the Arm® Flexible Access for Startups program, which gives $0 license fee access to a broad portfolio of verified Arm IP, tools and training, is now broadening its qualification criteria to welcome applications from startups that qualify under MEITY’s SemiconIndia futureDESIGN DLI scheme.
Arm Flexible Access for Startups provides low-risk, easy access to industry-proven technology, technical support, an extensive ecosystem, and Arm’s broad developer base so silicon startups can move fast, experiment with ease, and design with confidence. With Arm Flexible Access, startups building products across all markets have the best chance of success with a fast, low-risk journey to building a working prototype, securing the next round of funding, and instilling confidence in potential investors. Arm Flexible Access for Startups also offers technical support and training to rapidly upskill teams, alongside a choice of experienced Arm Approved Design Partners to bring extra capacity and capability along their journey.
“Innovative silicon startups will drive the future of the semiconductor industry as they develop life-changing new technologies in areas from AI to autonomous vehicles and IoT,” said Guru Ganesan, President, Arm India. “We are committed to supporting startups, and through the Arm Flexible Access program, we offer the freedom to experiment, innovate and design, so they can become the technology leaders of tomorrow.”
“India has a large and growing pool of designers in semiconductor domain and such offerings from semiconductor ecosystem players like Arm will provide a low cost, low risk opportunity to create innovative designs by young entrepreneurs for import substitution and value addition in the electronics sector”, said E. Magesh, Director General, CDAC.
Under this collaboration, CDAC and Arm intend to work towards the following broad objectives:
• Startups selected under DLI will qualify for the Arm Flexible Access for Startups program.
• Arm will provide the startups with access to processor and system IPs, reference designs, GPU, ISP, and AI accelerator IPs, and software development tools.
• Arm will provide access to thousands of Artisan physical IP products supporting multiple foundries and process nodes for physical design and implementation.
The DLI scheme aims to offer financial incentives as well as design infrastructure support across various stages of development and deployment of semiconductor design for Integrated Circuits , Chipsets, System on Chips , Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked design over a period of five years. The DLI Scheme is implemented by C-DAC. Under the DLI Scheme, ChipIN centre has been setup at C-DAC as one stop centre to provide chip design & fabrication services to supported companies. Five  startups/ MSMEs were earlier approved by MeitY for support under the DLI scheme and announced during the 2nd and 3rd DLI Roadshows held earlier this year in Bangalore  and Delhi . With this announcement, total 7 start-ups under the DLI Scheme will be working on making chip and IP cores for automotive, mobility and computing sectors.
The announcement was made in the presence of Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Electronics & IT Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MeitY Secretary Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma, President SEMI Shri Ajit Manocha and senior officials of the Government and Industries.